CABLE FIRMS, CUSTOMERS SAID TO BENEFIT IN LONG RUN FROM @HOME
Major cable companies see silver lining to shutdown of @Home, both for subscribers and for themselves, executives told UBS Warburg conference in N.Y. this week. Comcast Pres. Steve Burke said $160 million price tag to stick with Excite@Home (CD Dec 5 p6) during 3-month transition to Comcast Internet service should begin paying off for MSO sometime in 2nd quarter of 2002. AT&T Broadband COO Ron Cooper said he regretted “inconvenience and disruption to our customers” caused by shut-down, but said migration of customers to AT&T’s own high-speed service would bring benefits to them and company in long term.
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@Home/AT&T Internet snags weren’t only end-user frustrations mentioned at conference. Cooper said AT&T Broadband must devote more effort to improving customer service through training, reexamination of outsourced services and other initiatives. “Candidly, we've taken our eye off this ball over the last 18 months,” he said: “Satisfied customers buy more services and churn less. That’s pretty simple math.” Cooper was largely mum on bidding war among Comcast, Cox and AOL Time Warner to buy into AT&T Broadband. AOL Chmn. Steve Case also was quiet, but got laugh from crowd when he responded: “You don’t think I'm going to answer that,” after being asked about bid during lunchtime address to conference. Case did acknowledge that AOL Time Warner “certainly define ourselves as an interested party,” but said it would be “inappropriate” to go into any detail.
Close to first anniversary of AOL’s tying knot with Time Warner, Case said new organization functioned as “one company,” despite some predictions that marriage would prove rocky. “As one company we are doing more than either company could do on its own,” he said. He said convergence of technologies was inevitable and company was intent on pursuing its possibilities, as it has through digital distribution of music, interactive video services, other initiatives. As for fears that convergence could mean push for PVR, video-on-demand or other features potentially undermining traditional ad schemes, Case said advertisers should -- and would -- adjust, just as they had to previous technology changes. “I'm confident clever minds will figure out a way” to embed marketing messages into new means of delivering content, he said.
Responding to question about company plans to buy Bertelsmann stake in AOL Europe, Case said it was determined to expand its global reach. Now, he said, 20% of company revenue comes from outside U.S. and over next decade he would like to see that figure grow to 50%.
Case said degree of govt. regulation varied from nation to nation, citing GE’s retired CEO Jack Welch, who saw U.S. authorities give thumbs up to company’s proposed merger with Honeywell -- and got thumbs down this summer from counterparts in European Union. Nonetheless, Case said he had seen moves toward deregulation outside U.S. -- in Germany, for example -- and believed that, with globalization economy, there was emerging recognition of need to figure out “how to strike the right balance” in regulation.
Comcast executives touted company’s content services, among them shopping channel QVC. Despite weak economy and retail environment, televised store marked highest selling day ever Sun., selling $80 million of merchandise, said John Alchin, Comcast exec. vp-treas.